Archives » Tuesday, April 07, 2009
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Newsweek
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Apr 7, 2009 07:15 PM
By The Rev. Chloe Breyer
In this week’s “The End of Christian America”
John Meacham offers a faithful (and reasonable) argument that should
quell alarmist fears about a “post-Christian” era in America. His
Newsweek cover story is the stuff of solid civics classes and sermons
alike--in some congregations, that is.
Alarm issues from a
narrow corner of the Christian world over increasing numbers of the
“unidentified” 2009 American Religious Identification Survey’s. Dr. R.
Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary laments this trend
as heralding a “post-modern, post-Christian, post-Western cultural
crisis which threatens the very heart of our culture.” Citing patriots
like Rodger William who founded Rhode Island as a place for religious
dissidents, Meacham tries to put these fears to rest: love of freedom
rather than matters of doctrine have been the bedrock of many of the
best American values.
But there is more. Where, after all, would the Southern Baptist Seminary be today had the signers of the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657 adopted such an inhospitable understanding of American religiosity?
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Newsweek
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Apr 7, 2009 07:03 PM
By Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr
The image on the front cover says it all, declaring "The Decline and Fall of Christian America" in type set to form a cross.
The
cover story is a serious consideration of the issue Newsweek set as its
priority for the week of Easter, and the seriousness of the magazine's
approach is evident in the fact that its editor, Mr. Meacham, wrote the
cover story himself. The essay, elegant in form and serious in tone,
demands attention.
The increasingly secular character of New
England, now surpassing even the Pacific Northwest, is a portrait of
Christianity in retreat. The course of this retreat has been long.
Still,
the region remained under the influence of Christian memory and, for
most of the intervening decades, under the influence of the Christian
worldview. Now, New England is the most secular region of the nation,
representing a model of what I believe is rightly designated
post-Christian America.
Mr. Meacham looked at the same data that
had caught my attention, the American Religious Identification Survey
[ARIS] and the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Study.
What
does become clear is that what Newsweek sees as the essence of the
issue is political influence. While this is hardly a non-issue, my
greater concern is not with political influence and what secularization
means for the political sphere, but with what secularization means for
the souls of men and women who are now considerably more distant from
Christianity -- and perhaps even with any contact with Christianity --
than ever before. My main concern is evangelism, not cultural influence.
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